Detroit Tigers place Miguel Cabrera on 10-day DL; John Hicks recalled

MINNEAPOLIS – Detroit Tigers annouced first baseman Miguel Cabrera was placed on the 10-day disabled list Saturday afternoon with a right groin strain.

The team recalled catcher/first baseman John Hicks from Triple-A Toledo. Hicks batted seventh and started at first base in the 5-4 win over the Twins on Saturday, going 2-for-5 with an RBI.

Cabrera was injured in Friday’s 6-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins in the sixth inning. Robbie Grossman hit a two-run single between a diving Cabrera and second baseman Ian Kinsler. Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said after Friday’s game Cabrera suffered the groin strain diving for the ball.

Cabrera will be eligible to return  May 1 and will miss at least eight games.

The Tigers had a scheduled day off Monday before starting a 10-game home stand. They open a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners at 7:10 on Tuesday.

The Tigers received an extension from Major League Baseball to bring Hicks up from Triple-A Toledo because they weren’t sure whether Cabrera would need to go on the DL or not.

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Hicks told reporters he received a call at 12:30 a.m. Saturday from Mud Hens manager Mike Rojas telling him he was going to join the Tigers in case he was needed. The Mud Hens were in Lehigh Valley, Pa.

“I was asleep,” Hicks said Saturday in Minnesota. “We were there yesterday and got rained out with no rain. They forgot to tarp the field the day before. 12:30, I was in bed asleep. Didn’t know what was going on at first. It was Rojas. Told me: ‘You’re going to go up. Not really sure what’s going to happen, where you’re going to be playing. Just be on a plane at 6 a.m.’ Here I am.”

Hicks said the airport he went to was really small and so was the plane.

“I think the plane had 13 rows and there was probably 15 people on the whole plane,” he said.

Hicks played in 17 games with the Mariners in 2015 at catcher, DH and third base.

The Twins claimed Hicks off waivers in December 2015. Hicks said he spent spring training and a few weeks at Triple-A with the Twins organization before he was claimed off waivers by the Tigers in April 2016.

Hicks, 27, played in one game with the Tigers last season.

He is batting .424 with 12 RBIs in 10 games for the Mud Hens. He has a double, triple and home run.

“Seeing the ball really well, swinging it well,” Hicks said. “Been catching well. We’ve been playing real well as a whole team. We’ve been winning a lot of games. Hopefully I can do that up here.”

Hicks hit .120 with one home run in 16 games in spring training.

“I felt like I had a good spring,” Hicks said. “My numbers weren’t great. I felt like I hit a lot of balls really hard and got out. When I got sent down, I had encouraging numbers down there. I felt good and from jump start, from Game 1 in Toledo I felt good.”

The Tigers chose to bring up Hicks, who bats right-handed, over left-handed hitting first baseman James Loney and Efren Navarro, right-handed hitting utilityman Omar Infante or right-handed hitting catcher Bryan Holaday. Of those players, only Hicks is already on the 40-man roster, but Ausmus said the Tigers had spots available and brought up who they wanted.

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Contact George Sipple: gsipple@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgesipple.

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